Until recently, the cold stress response has mainly
been analyzed after exposing rodents and humans to cold
ambient temperatures. It should be remembered, howeverthat exposing whole non-hibernating animals to cold may
not lower the temperature of the tissues in which the “coldinduced”
expression of genes are to be examined. For
example, in one study incubating mice in a 2-3°C incubator
for 8 h with food and water decreased the rectal core
temperatures only from 36.5°C to 34.0°C (Cullen and
Sarge, 1997). As mammals are multicellular organisms and
have developed means to ward off the cold circumstances,
their cold-response as a whole animal should naturally be
different from bacteria and plants. When cultured as a single
cell, however, some responses may be common to other
single-cell organisms. In this review, we will focus on the
studies using cultured mammalian cells and summarise
what is currently known about the effects of cold exposure
on cellular functions, especially on expression of coldinducible
genes.